While the Middle East crisis continues to simmer or boil over in Egypt’s case, American lawmakers revisit the need to implement an Internet kill switch for the U.S.

The need for such aggressive measures by any government has played out in recent days and U.S. lawmakers have dusted off their playbooks and will take a hard look at the need to “protect” its constituents from a so-called cyber attack.

Leading the charge are Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) who point to WikiLeaks as a reason to control the Internet cyber space. The bill titled, “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act,” would give the president the authority to track critical cyber-infrastructure lists. This legislation would give the president the ability to turn off the Internet without any judicial review. Something the world is now witnessing in Egypt.

However, Senator Collins claims the “switch” would be different in the United States. “It would provide a mechanism for the government to work with the private sector in the event of a true cyber emergency,” she explained. “It would give our nation the best tools available to swiftly respond to a significant treat.”

Does she mean a threat like a country-wide uprising against an out-of-control government?

The unprecedented crackdown of Egypt’s dictator, Hosni Mubarak, to shut off the Internet, outside TV and cell phone services prompted immediate criticism from the Obama Administration. It’s ironic they are asking for the same “kill switch” technology for Americans.

Experts agree that if the U.S. government shut-down the Internet the ramifications would be far-reaching. A majority of the population currently uses the World Wide Web to get its news coverage as well as monitor their financial accounts or pay their bills.

“The surprising thing isn’t that a corrupt, authoritarian regime would launch this kind of state-sponsored denial off service attack on its own citizens,” Costa said. “Nor that it is willing to jeopardize its economy by cutting its business off from the world markets. No, the thing that surprises me is that the U.S. government has plans for its own Internet ‘kill switch.’”

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On January 25, an American photographer narrowly escaped death when he was ambushed by cartel members and led the henchmen on a high-speed chase to the International Border Zone, just south of Nogales, Arizona.

Matthew Besinger, a Los Angeles-based photographer was working on a photograph book about the Sonoran desert when he was ambushed by four young men. His vehicle suffered significant damage during his daring escape which ended at the U.S./Mexico border near Nogales.

Nogales Department of Homeland Security spokesman, Juan Osorio confirmed an incident took place regarding Besinger, but would not comment on the details.

The Tucson Sector DHS Public Affairs officer, Brian Levin also confirmed Besinger came through the Nogales port, went through secondary, had his car searched and listened to his story. However, since the incident took place in Mexico Levin says they have no way of proving what may or may not have happened.

In related news, American missionary, Nancy Davis was not as lucky as Besinger. She was murdered as her husband fled the scene of heavily-armed drug cartel gangsters. Davis was shot in the head, taken to a hospital near Reynosa and was pronounced dead 90-minutes later.

“The gunmen were attempting to stop them and the victims accelerated in efforts of getting away from them,” a police statement read. “At a certain point the gunmen discharged a weapon at the victim’s vehicle and a bullet struck the victim Nancy Shuman Davis in the head.”

According to a CNN report, Davis’ husband, immediately drove his truck “at high rate of speed” to the Pharr International Bridge near the Rio Grande. Pharr Police said, “They had been in touch with Mexican authorities, who said they were investigating the shooting. The Texas Department of Public Safety, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are also assisting police.”

The following is an account of the horrifying cartel ambush as told by Matt Besinger;

“Last night I was ambushed in my car by four men at gunpoint in Nogales, Sonora (Mexico). I managed to elude them and make my way back to the International Zone before I was robbed or murdered. This occurred within blocks of the Arizona border.

I’m a fine art photographer from Los Angeles working on a book about the Sonoran Desert. I lived in Tucson for 14 years and studied Poetry at University of Arizona. The photographs are being shot at night and I’ve visited many of Arizona border towns.

I was driving up the hill on the east side of the border (in Mexico). There’s a street that climbs the hill named Buenos Aires. The hilltop offers a view of the wall and the landscape of Southern Arizona. After passing the lone hot dog stand, an approaching white sedan veered toward my car. There were four guys in the car and a fifth trailing on foot. They put a hand-held police light (blue/red) on their dash and screamed at me to get out of the car. Their behavior was totally erratic, especially since the rest of the town was dead.

Luckily, I had seen Nogales Police on Adolfo López Mateos and I remembered they wore green jackets, patches, badges, etc. These guys did not match. I angled my car around theirs and sped up the hill. Knowing that I would just rise deeper into the Buenos Aries neighborhood, I turned around. The street is super-tight and it requires a three-point U-turn. By the time I was going back down the hill, they were within 100-feet of me.

This time they aimed their car straight for mine. We both stopped short of a head-on collision. There were just the four guys at this point and they all jumped out of the car. Some had handguns on belts and a few had homemade bullet-proof vests. There wasn’t one signifier or uniform, no camouflage, they were all super-young, and some wore T-Shirts and street clothes. They looked like high-schoolers dressed for Paramilitary Day.

When the last guy made his way from the sedan- he aimed a machine gun at my windshield- I dropped my torso under all of the windows and pressed on the gas as hard as I could. I managed to avoid all four guys and squeeze between their sedan and the block wall on the street’s edge. My car launched down the side of Buenos Aires, the undercarriage hitting everything. I knew (I had) to get on Adolfo Ruiz Cortines heading south in order to eventually get back to the International Exit.

Lucky again, Buenos Aires is so tight that I had a decent lead on the sedan- they lost a good 15 seconds regrouping, turning around. After I made a few more U-turns I was headed north on Plutarco Elías Calles (the International Exit road), about a half-mile from the border. The sedan sped by on the other side of the street but they still had a couple of U-turns before they’d catch me. When I got close to the border I was doing almost 70mph. Then a van started to trail me with police lights. It looked like the Nogales Police, but I wasn’t about to stop and find out.

I slowed-up near the International Exit traffic and drove straight through all of the speed bumps/plastic barricades to the booth of a Homeland Security Officer. I asked if he was American- he said “yes.” I threw my hands in the air, told him I had almost been murdered, was handcuffed and brought to their Detention Room. There was some light questioning, my car was searched- none of it bothered me. I was happy to be alive.

Homeland Security said a drug cartel runs the Buenos Aires neighborhood. The cartel is so violent that the Nogales Police no longer monitors or patrols those streets. They recognized my description of the events and said that it was definitely the cartel. They also claimed that if I had stepped out of my car, I would have been robbed or murdered.

The US Department of State raises plenty of warnings about the border areas and virtually describes exactly what happened to me here. But the US Embassy only warns of “unnecessary travel to Michoacán and Tamaulipas, to parts of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, and Coahuila.” These ambushes probably happen more than they’re ever reported. No report of my incident was made. Homeland Security did not allow the Nogales Police to gain access to me- and nothing will be done about what happened. There have been horrific murders of Americans in Sonora and I think the local news should press its viewers to stop visiting Nogales altogether- I was very lucky.”

According to the U.S. Department of State, a travel advisory was removed in September of 2010 and only warns Americans traveling south of the border to exercise caution.

A month later, in October, David Hartley was murdered on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S./Mexico border. He and his wife were trying to escape heavily-armed drug cartel members on Jet Skis-David was struck by a bullet and his body was never recovered.

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The Southern California city of San Fernando and its Police Department will pay $44,000 for negligence because an officer did not know the rules and regulations for individuals or law enforcement officers to lawfully carrying a firearm.

The City of San Fernando agreed to pay approximately $44,000 to San Fernando former Coast Guard Reserve maritime law enforcement Officer Jose Diaz. The city must also implement new policies and procedures for the improper arrest and seizure of Coast Guard Reserve Diaz, according to the San Fernando Police Department. The police department also agreed to a “Finding of Factual Innocence.”

Diaz contends that a police department contest was a driving factor in this case.

“The San Fernando Police Department give’s out awards to officer’s that ‘achieve benchmarks in firearm confiscations,(YouTube video)” said Jason Davis an attorney for Calguns. “But this contest encourages the illegal confiscation of lawfully possessed firearms by officers who do not understand the laws themselves.”

While the settlement may seem small, Calguns, a state and national gun rights advocacy group, says the lawsuit was sought to ensure San Fernando properly trains its officers to deal with law-abiding gun owners.

In November of 2007, then Reserve Coast Guard maritime law enforcement Officer Diaz was driving to a shooting range when he was stopped by San Fernando Police Officer Marshall Mack to determine if Diaz had the proper vehicle registration, according to a statement released by Davis.

“Upon approaching Diaz’s vehicle, Officer Mack observed a firearms case in the back seat with a firearm cable lock entangled around the handle of the case. Officer Mack was able to open the case without a key,” says Davis. “The case contained two loaded magazines and a Glock with no magazine in the well of the firearm and no cartridge in the chamber.”

The plaintiffs claimed the cable lock that entangled around the gun was a “lock container” however Officer Mack disagreed. The police officer also took issue with the fact that a Coast Guard reserve maritime law enforcement officer was permitted to carry pursuant to the Federal Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act, which allows police officers to carry firearms off duty.

”I showed Officer Mack my Coast Guard ID and informed the officer that the LEOSA permitted me to carry a firearm as a Coast Guard maritime law enforcement reserve officer,” said Diaz. “I also informed Officer Mack that I was carrying the firearm lawfully – unloaded and in a locked container.”

Unbeknownst to Coast Guard Reserve Diaz, Police Officer Mack falsely subscribed to the fact that California law required firearms be stored separate from the ammunition. Mack arrested Diaz for unlawful possession of a loaded firearm because a loaded magazine was touching the firearm within the case. The police officer hauled Diaz to jail where he was booked and spent one day and night in jail.

“While we cannot financially support every firearms case, we have a stake in many of them,” said Gene Hoffman, Chairman for The Calguns Foundation. “We recommended that Diaz use an attorney knowledgeable in firearm laws and offered informational support.”

Diaz retained his Calguns attorney Davis who orchestrated a settlement with the San Fernando Police Department. The terms of the settlement include educational policies on assault weapons; carry permits, open carry and LEOSA rules.

“Public safety is of the utmost importance… and that includes safety from infringement of our constitutional rights under the color of law,” said Davis. “With this settlement, and the policies implemented as a result of the agreement, it is my hope that law enforcement throughout the state will get the message that California’s gun owners insist on their rights.”

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California is broke. It owes more than $25 billion, businesses and residents are fleeing like dine-and-dash customers to less taxed states; this financial catastrophe is leaving a gaping spending and revenue problem for the Golden State.

Rational lawmakers would see the writing on the wall and start cutting the budget line by line. However, adding insult to injury, one California lawmaker thinks the state should allow illegal aliens to apply and receive dwindling financial aid for colleges.

Only in America would Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, (D-Los Angeles) introduce legislation (AB130 and AB131) that would place illegal aliens on a level playing field with residents who have lived and paid taxes in sunny California.

Californians are struggling to stay afloat during the state’s lingering recession that teeters on the brink of financial collapse. Despite the looming financial meltdown lawmakers continue to introduce legislation that punishes legal residents and aids illegal alien students. Both AB130 and AB131 bills increase the number of illegal alien students who are exempt from paying nonresident college tuition.

Cedillo says it’s no big deal but he is very wrong, after a two-day college budget summit, the University of California regents came to the conclusion that serious changes are on the horizon.

The UC colleges (not the state colleges which are facing identical challenges) said the new cuts equate to a 16.4 percent reduction of state support, an 8 percent tuition increase, and nearly half of the UC financial aid as well as 80 percent of student services funding will see cutbacks.

Additionally, 22,000 out-of-state students will gain preference over residents and the UC College regents say they will have to cut 50,000 students beginning this fall semester.

According to activist groups, AB131 legislation would penalize citizens or legal immigrant students by reducing the financial aid available to them and blurs the lines between those who are here legally and those who broke federal immigration laws.

In the past California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed similar bills, but it appears newly-elected Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has indicated he supports giving financial aid to illegal alien students and will sign the legislation.

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California harbors the most illegal aliens in the nation and a new report out from the Los County Board of Supervisors shows the incredibly high cost of welfare for parents of anchor babies.

The $600 million tab was tallied using county statistics released by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich who says social spending for those families rose $53 million in November and when added to the $570 already spent would edge the yearly welfare bill past $600 million for 2010.

Antonovich estimated the figure using the cost of food stamps and other welfare benefits used by California’s CalWORKS program. The supervisor also pooled those numbers with public safety and health care costs.

However, county officials say the “total cost for illegal immigrants to county taxpayers is $1.6 billion,” according to a Fox News report.

The report does not include the hundreds of millions the state and county pay for educating illegal aliens as mandated by federal law.

Supervisor Antonovich recognizes the (anchor baby) kids he focused on are U.S.-born, but the money collected from welfare is given to their parents who are primarily illegal aliens.

“The problem is illegal immigration. … Their parents evidently immigrated here in order to get on social services,” Antonovich spokesman Tony Bell told Fox News. “We can no longer afford to be HMO to the world.”

Those welfare numbers are similar to a report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington D.C. think tank seeking a solution for the out-of-control immigration problem in America.

FAIR contends many states’ budget crisis can be tied directly to illegal aliens residing in their district and collecting a bevy of social-services money.

Last year FAIR estimated the yearly total for America’s illegal immigration stood at $113 billion and California’s cost was nearly $22 billion.

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The National Council of La Raza (NCLA) announced it will begin a new ad campaign targeting those lawmakers who voted against the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors) during last year’s lame duck Congressional session.

La Raza (the race in Spanish) launched an online and print ad campaign named “We Will Not Forget.”

The campaign will serve as a reminder to voters that Congress members of both parties voted against the DREAM Act and Latino organizations were watching.

The ads will be running in Spanish-language newspapers in some states as well as select online websites in both English and Spanish.

The big red poster is downloadable and includes the pictures of all lawmakers who did not support illegal aliens’ children’s right to amnesty and qualify them for in-state college tuition. La Raza hopes supporters will download the poster and put it on their refrigerator to serve as a daily reminder.

“As we move into the new Congress and work toward advancing important legislation for our community, it’s crucial not to forget what happened in the lame duck session of 2010,” said Laura Vazquez of La Raza. “The ‘DREAM Act’ was an important measure of support for our community and we need to remember who stood with us and who turned their backs on us.”

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According to a recent study by New York University, approximately half of college freshman and sophomores show little academic gains- researchers concluded these non-learning students were more focused on their social activities.

The report also pointed out that college professors tend to focus on their own research rather than teaching incoming students and undergrads typically studied 50 percent less than college graduates a few decades ago.

The book that included the study, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses’ author, Richard Arum of NYU says “These are really kind of shocking, disturbing numbers.”

A chart indicates that college students spend 51 percent of their week socializing. That is followed by sleeping, 24 percent; working, volunteering, student clubs and attending class, nine percent. The report concluded that students allocated the least amount of their time studying, seven percent or 23 hours.

More than 3,000 students participated in the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test that measures critical thinking, analytic reasoning as well as writing skills.

Once students completed four years of college only 36 percent of those tested showed improvement.

Arum said the students who participated in this study had a 3.2 grade-point average. However he pointed out that “students are able to navigate through the system quite well with little effort.”

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The United States and Immigration Services Office (USIS) of Public Engagement is holding a new series of seminars aimed at legalizing relatives of legal immigrants.

The new “Enlace” webinar is aptly named, “How do I help my relative become a permanent resident in the United States?”

The federal government will provide the details only in Spanish, English-only residents will not be addressed at this seminar. The forum is meant to answer questions regarding legalizing family members and will only cover “general” queries.

The first in-person seminar is scheduled in Fairfax, VA on Jan. 29 at 1 p.m. However the USIS will broadcast the controversial seminar via the Internet and conference call.

Those who wish to participate are encouraged to email public.engagement@dhs.gov, and type the word “Enlace” in the subject line.

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California’s budget crisis will now be handled by adults according to newly-minted and former California Governor Jerry Brown. Nothing is off the table Brown said- except those who have collective bargaining contracts. That grown-up budget conversation came at the expense of the state’s coveted higher-education programs.

The billion-dollar cuts shocked college administrators and prompted warnings to high school seniors it will get a whole lot tougher to attend a University California like (UCLA) or any California State college.

Brown’s new budget proposals include $12.5 billion in overall spending cuts, including $1 billion for the California University campuses.

“These cuts will be painful, requiring sacrifice from every sector of the state, but we have no choice,” Brown said. “For 10 years, we’ve had budget gimmicks and tricks that pushed us deep into debt. We must now return California to fiscal responsibility and get our state on the road to economic recovery and job growth.”

Charles Reed, the chancellor of the Long Beach-based CSU, said the proposed budget amounts to an 18 percent decrease in state funding for universities. This proposal, if passed by the state Legislature would take college spending back to the levels of 1999-2000. California universities currently educate roughly 70,000 more students than it did a decade ago.

“The magnitude of the budget reduction in one year will have serious impacts on the state’s economy, limit access for students seeking entrance into our universities and restrict classes and services for our current students,’” Reed explained.

Reed said universities have already raised tuition and employed furloughs, but it’s not enough.

“We will work with the administration and the Legislature to minimize, as much as possible, impact to students,” he said. “However, the reality is that we will not be able to admit as many students as we had been planning for this fall.”

Questions will surely mount as the state Legislature passed a DREAM Act law of their own. Arguments against the bill came from those who said citizens would have to compete for university slots with illegal aliens. However, proposed cuts will surely lead to more competition because colleges will be forced to reduce incoming students.

University of California President Mark Yudof called the proposed budget “a sad day for California.”

He continued to explain that “the budget proposed by Gov. Brown, the collective tuition payments made by University of California students for the first time in history would exceed what the state contributes to the system’s general fund. The crossing of this threshold transcends mere symbolism and should be profoundly disturbing to all Californians.”

Yudof explained the chancellors of UCLA and other UC campuses will have six weeks to develop plans to meet the proposed budget reduction. “With the governor’s budget, as proposed, we will be digging deep into bone,” he said. “The physics of the situation cannot be denied, as the core budget shrinks, so must the university.”

For the meantime Brown left K-12 education alone and said they have already sacrificed pay in the last few years under Schwarzenegger. Brown claims he will seek a June special election to increase California’s income and sales taxes, including the state’s vehicle license fees.

“Brown’s call for change doesn’t hold anything back,” he says. “His vision acknowledges that we are long past a debate about cuts and taxes. California government must be restructured in order to be more responsive and cost-effective.”

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Controversial nut-job minister, Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas told anyone who would listen to his disturbing rant on YouTube that “the shooter was sent by God.” These Westboro Church leaders are equally as guilty as the “shooter” who took his anger out on innocent folks gathering to meet their Congresswoman last Saturday.

The facts first, Jared Loughner was a lone shooter operating on a limited mental capacity who killed six and injured 11 others. His killing swathe included a federal judge, clergy member, Republican, Democrat and a nine-year-old child.

A motive for the killing still has not been established, leading one to believe his psychological mind-set was teetering between the “real world” and his “made-up world fantasies.”

Not surprisingly the media has jumped into full-spin mode and have blamed Republicans and Democrats- neither are at fault, but that doesn’t sell newspapers.

Of course the mainstream media wanted to pin it on the military. The first two days after the massacre media speculation tagged Loughner as an Afghanistan War Veteran gone awry. That announcement proved false once the Army released a statement saying he applied three years ago and was turned away when he failed a drug test.

Ironically the doctor that is credited for saving Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) life is an Afghan/Iraq War Veteran.

“There’s no doubt that I was in the Navy 24 years, and I trained to do nothing but battlefield casualty care,” says Dr. Peter Rhee. “When I did go to Afghanistan and Iraq, I wasn’t in a hospital. I was in very forward surgical units, so I was very accustomed to working with very little gear and people and personnel, very little resources, with wounds that are very different than civilian injuries,” Rhee explained. “Did it prepare me? I would say of course it did. And that makes it so that when we have a mass casualty of 11 people here, it’s really not as bad as it can get.”

Dr. Rhee began his battleground career in 2001 and treated “hundreds and hundreds” when he was deployed to Camp Rhino in Afghanistan. He later returned to the war zone in 2005, serving in Iraq.

“This (multiple shooting) doesn’t compare,” Rhee said. “This is not really a mass casualty. I have all the gear and people I could possibly want. This is luxury for me. This trauma center, this is about as good as it gets.”

Dr. Rhee said today that he was given the full services of the military, and the doctor took advantage of the offer by flying in two other Middle East War Veterans.

Rhee referred to the military trauma and neurological doctors as “world famous people…their Iraq War experience with penetrating trauma,” help saved Giffords’ life.

However, the two military doctors told reporters that it was Dr. Rhee who saved the Congresswoman’s life.

There are many heroes in the sunny Saturday morning massacre in Tucson, Arizona. An elderly husband covered his wife, shielding her while he perished. A 20-year-old congressional intern held his boss’s head upright and kept pressure on her wounds until EMS arrived. After Giffords was taken away he turned to help others at the chaotic scene.

There were two bystanders who ran into the gunfire and tackled the deranged shooter preventing him from reloading his weapon and killing more innocent people. Each day the story unfolds, more ordinary heroes come to light.

Looking back at the horrific day the parents of the youngest victim, Christina Green called for justice, not Republican or Democrat, just justice.

“It would be a waste of millions of dollars” to do anything other than take the killer’s life, Green’s father said in a Washington Post story. “They should use the money to help kids in school instead of some idiot.”

This “idiot” should be the focus of the rampage- at 22 he was unable to have any lifelong political leanings and his words on the Internet prove he was incapable of making any coherent statements. Instead his words are random thoughts of delusion and this delusion sent him to the Safeway parking lot.

“She (Christina) was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Green said. “I’m very angry that someone would choose that venue to take out their anger. It is a cowardly way to handle their grievances.”

The tragedy in Tucson needs time to heal, if the mainstream media doesn’t stop perpetuating their suppositions, the country will likely see another senseless rampage.